The Devil´s Dictionary: From A to Z

By Ambrose Bierce

In this dictionary Bierce compiles the canon of human weaknesses, prejudices, absurdities and habits. The subtle, nasty “definitions“ of words expose the very aspect in them that normal consciousness hypocritically tries to cover up.

First published as „The Cynic’s Word Book“ (1906) and later reissued under its preferred name in 1911, Bierce’s notorious collection of barbed definitions forcibly contradicts Samuel Johnson’s earlier definition of a lexicographer as a harmless drudge. There was nothing harmless about Ambrose Bierce, and the words he shaped into verbal pitchforks a century ago–with or without the devil’s help–can still draw blood today.

The American writer Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) had not only a sharp tongue, but also a pointed feather. He was one of the most dazzling figures in 19th-century literary America – the personified provocation and a hateful cynic who left no subject out. No matter whether it was about general, small or great weaknesses of the human race – nothing was sacred to his mockery. He became famous with his „Devil´s Dictionary“, a collection of gallant and pointedly spiritual aphorisms.

The size of the eBook is about 180 pages.


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• Language: English
• Publisher: apebook Verlag
• Release date: May 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9783961301591

Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) was an American novelist and short story writer. Born in Meigs County, Ohio, Bierce was raised Indiana in a poor family who treasured literature and extolled the value of education. Despite this, he left school at 15 to work as a printer’s apprentice, otherwise known as a “devil”, for the Northern Indianan, an abolitionist newspaper. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, he enlisted in the Union infantry and was present at some of the conflict’s most harrowing events, including the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. During the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in 1864, Bierce—by then a lieutenant—suffered a serious brain injury and was discharged the following year. After a brief re-enlistment, he resigned from the Army and settled in San Francisco, where he worked for years as a newspaper editor and crime reporter. In addition to his career in journalism, Bierce wrote a series of realist stories including “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Chickamauga,” which depict the brutalities of warfare while emphasizing the psychological implications of violence. In 1906, he published The Devil’s Dictionary, a satirical dictionary compiled from numerous installments written over several decades for newspapers and magazines. In 1913, he accompanied Pancho Villa’s army as an observer of the Mexican Revolution and disappeared without a trace at the age of 71.